


First Call

by pocky_slash



Category: The West Wing
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-11
Updated: 2005-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:41:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24246682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocky_slash/pseuds/pocky_slash
Summary: "Oh my god, Will, you arenotsleeping with Sam Seaborn!"
Relationships: Will Bailey/Sam Seaborn
Kudos: 19





	First Call

**Author's Note:**

> A break in NaNo. For [](https://quackerscooper.livejournal.com/profile)[**quackerscooper**](https://quackerscooper.livejournal.com/) , who never did get a birthday present. Based on a line in "A Proportional Response" in which CJ tells Sam that from now on, she's his first call.

"Deep breaths," Will said to himself out loud. "It's not like you've never been in to see CJ before." He realized, at that point, that he was still talking out loud and snapped his mouth shut. One last deep breath and he was marching over to CJ's office. It was now or never, and Sam was going to find out one of these days that when he said, 'Yeah, I'll mention it to CJ tonight,' last week, what he really meant was he'd avoid CJ like the plague for as long as possible.

"Carol?" he said to CJ's assistant. "When CJ has a moment, I'd like to see her." Carol glanced up from her computer, then down at the schedule on the desk.

"She's free now," Carol said.

"It doesn't have to be right now. It can be whenever," Will insisted. "Tomorrow's fine. So's next week, actually--"

"She's free now," Carol repeated.

"Right," Will said, rubbing the back of his head. "Okay, then I'll go in now."

"Sounds like a plan." Carol was already typing away on her computer again. Will sighed a long-suffering sigh, but she didn't seem to notice. He approached CJ's door and knocked.

Too late to turn back now.

"Come in!" CJ called out, and he really had no choice but to listen to her. If he ran now, CJ would just ask Carol who had been at the door and she'd come and find him and they'd _still_ have to have this conversation. Unless he lied and said it was about something else. Could he do that? It couldn't be too hard. He could always say he had some questions about the press or the inauguration speech and he was intimidated by Toby, or...

"Hello? Who's out there?"

"Uh, it's just me," he said, ducking inside and looking at the floor.

"And...?"

Will glanced up and looked around nervously, trying not to make eye contact with CJ. He was going to kill Sam for making him do this. He was going to kill him at least twice over.

"This is a nice office," he said. "You have nice... windows. And a couch. That's nice. Also, I noticed there are no bicycles and while I'm not complaining about the bicycles it was just something I noticed." He chanced a glance at CJ. She was beginning to look like she was running out of patience with him. Huh.

"Is there some sort of point to this?" she asked. "Because I actually have, you know, work to do, and you do too, last time I checked. Toby didn't hire you to wander around and give interior decorating advice."

"I'm not advising you," Will said. "I'm just pointing out that you have a nice office." CJ was staring at him and she didn't look like she was going to stop anytime soon. "Okay, that's not the point. The point is... there's something, and I've been... Sam and I have been talking about it and he told me that... Sam said you had to be the first call." CJ stared at him for a moment. He could tell she was confused and was hoping that this wasn't some elaborate joke being played on him by Sam.

"Sam told you that I had to be the first call?" CJ said. "For what? You're a temp!"

"I... that's what he said. He said that that you said that if this ever happened again you needed to be the first call and--" Will was more than prepared to ramble at length about Sam's advice and his own thoughts on the subject and keeping his private life to himself and how he didn't really understand this "first call" thing in the first place, as Elsie had really been his first call, not that it was like he called his step-sister every time he had sex, but he just happened to call her afterwards, and a world of other topics, but the look on CJ's face made him stop short.

"You slept with a prostitute?" CJ hissed after glancing up to check that he closed the door behind him. Will's eyes widened.

"No!" he said quickly. "No! I didn't sleep with a... no!" He could feel his cheeks heating up at even the thought of having his conversation with the White House Press Secretary. This was a bad idea and he knew it was a bad idea from the start. He never, ever was going to listen to Sam ever again. This was humiliating and confusing and nerve-wracking and he was a _temp_ for god's sake! This should be Sam's job!

CJ stared at him for another moment, as if she was trying to solve a particularly complicated puzzle. He was able to tell her to call the whole thing off, when the pieces seemed to click into place. Or at least, that's what he assumed was happening, if the look on her face meant anything.

"No... no!" she whispered. "Oh my god, Will, you are _not_ sleeping with Sam Seaborn!"

Dammit. She didn't sound pleased.

"I'm not sleeping with Sam Seaborn right now," Will said, once again rubbing the back of his head as he looked away from CJ, already feeling overcome with guilt for no earthly reason that he could think of. "I mean, he's in California and I'm here in DC, which makes the logistics of that rather hard..."

" _Will..._ " CJ's voice had a dangerous edge to it, which just made him talk faster, for some reason.

"I mean, we can't very well afford to fly back and forth between coasts every night. Or, well, I guess Sam could. Billing five hundred dollars an hour in the private sector probably does that sort of thing to your bank account but the point is that we're not so we're not technically sleeping together right now, no..."

"Will, have you fucked Sam Seaborn?" CJ said in a voice that was just a little too loud for Will's liking.

"Well, that's a crude way to put it but--" Off CJ's look, he quickly said, "Yes."

"Are you planning on doing it again?" she asked, her voice dangerously low. He felt his ears start to burn.

"Uh. Yes." If looks could kill, he would have been dead twice over.

"I'm going to kill you both before it can happen," she said, and suddenly he didn't even have to worry about looks killing. Wonderful. He backed up a few feet reflexively, until he hit the door.

"If it makes you feel any better, CJ, I thought it was a bad idea too!" he said desperately. "I was completely against it until Sam put up a very convincing argument." CJ walked around the side of her desk, and with every step, Will tried harder and harder to blend into the wood of the door. It wasn't working.

"Oh yeah? Let's hear it," CJ said when they were almost nose-to-nose.

"Uh, it was actually less of a spoken argument and more of an argument with his hands and mouth," Will admitted. "I don't really think he would appreciate me repeating it for you, even if I desired to." CJ raised her eyebrows, still managing to glare menacingly at him. "Which I don't, by the way," he added quickly. "Not that you're not a very attractive and, I'm sure, wonderfully engaging woman, it's just that--"

"You're screwing Sam Seaborn," she said, still glaring.

"Yes, it's just that." He paused. "And also that I'm gay. But mostly that." He was out and out cowering under CJ Cregg's gaze. His father had been the Supreme Commander of NATO Allied Forces, he had attended dinners with dignitaries and world leaders, debated and played poker with senior military officials, but here in CJ Cregg's office he was sweating, shaking and five times as terrified as he had been the first time his father had walked in on him thoroughly kissing another boy in his bedroom. He had to suppress the urge to shiver, which should have been strange, considering how much he was sweating, but with CJ looking at him like that he didn't have much time to contemplate it. Most of his time was being spent mentally listing different methods of begging her not to tear off his head and use it to beat Sam senseless, because it certainly looked like that thought was crossing her mind.

After what felt like another hour under her scrutiny, CJ sighed heavily and backed away.

"He said I was the first call?" she asked, a hand over her eyes. She suddenly sounded tired. He knew how she felt.

"He said that you said you were the first call," Will said. "And you are. I mean, my sister knows, but she didn't tell anyone." CJ looked up at him sharply at that.

"Are you sure? Are you absolutely positive she didn't babble it to one of her friends?"

"She doesn't have any friends!" He held up his hands quickly, defensively, and tried to back up again, forgetting he had gone back as far as he could go. He hit his head on the door with a resounding smack. "Ow..."

CJ sighed and moved towards one of the other doors in her office. While Will rubbed the quickly forming lump on the back of his head, she ducked inside and came out with an ice pack, which he accepted gratefully.

"Well, you certainly are a well matched pair," she muttered. "I'm sure Sam's heart will be warmed to learn that his boyfriend is using his icepacks in his absence." Will opened his mouth to make a comment about the fact that they hadn't agreed on titles yet, but decided that CJ probably didn't care and closed his mouth again.

"So..." Will said after a moment. "Now I've told you and..."

"I need time to process this," she said, covering her face with both her hands.

"Right," Will said, shuffling awkwardly from foot to foot. "Then I'm just going to..."

"Go," CJ said, dropping her hands and glaring at him again.

"Right," Will said quickly. "I'm going to go back to Sam's office and... go there. Thank you for the icepack." He turned to leave the room and narrowly avoided smacking into the door again. He thought he heard CJ sigh, but didn't bother turning around to double-check.

"Carol!" he heard her yell as he made his way quickly out of the office. "Get me Sam on the phone, _now_. And tell him that this is going to be a long conversation and I'm going to yell a lot, so he'd probably find a nice quiet place he can sit down while I'm talking to him." Sam was not going to be happy with him when they talked tonight. Of course, to be fair, this was entirely Sam's own fault, so really, he deserved whatever he got. "And in the meantime, get me Toby. I've got some vital information I need to share with him as soon as possible."

Will winced. He had a feeling that life in the White House was about to get ten times more complicated. Oh well. At least he'd be out in a month. What was the worst that could happen?


End file.
